


No One Man Should Have All That Power

by lambsandlions



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Character Death, Established Relationship, Future Fic, M/M, Robots, this was a class writing assignment so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-03
Updated: 2014-02-03
Packaged: 2018-01-11 02:42:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1167689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lambsandlions/pseuds/lambsandlions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The whole idea of a replacement freaked him out. There was just something so ethically wrong about having clones mill around like they were the original. It’s how the Circle of Life worked, like that animated lion movie from forever ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No One Man Should Have All That Power

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a class assignment in which I had to write a science fiction story. Naturally, I gravitated towards Kane & Toews.
> 
> It's been sitting around in my files for awhile so I figured I'd send it out into the world to be free. 
> 
> I suppose you could say this was beta'd by my English teacher, so thanks Joel. 
> 
> For a fair warning if the tag makes you nervous, check out the end notes.

Patrick stood in the back of the conference room, waiting with everyone else to hear Jonny unveil the new cloning technologies that he and his team had been working on. He had half jokingly informed Jonny that he should be recognized as a contributor as well.

Jonny couldn’t help but agree. Pat had spent countless nights bringing coffee to and from the workshop while Jonny re-ran calculations and mauled over confounding variables.  Through it all, Pat hadn’t managed to figure out what exactly Jonny had concocted within the confines of his brilliant mind.

It had all paid off though. Pat could feel it in the air. It was practically vibrating throughout the room.

As Jonny and his fellow scientists entered and stood behind the podium, the reporters began to fidget. Jonny’s eyes swept over the crowd of fellow scientists, reporters, and interested civilians, but his eyes stuck on one. Patrick, still standing in the back, flashed him a cheesy smile and two big thumbs up. He suppressed an eye roll; at least it wasn’t the foam finger.

“Thank you for all coming today. I’ll have time for any and all questions you may have in the time allotted after the presentation.” The disgruntled reporters tucked their video recording chips back into their pockets as a sign appeared above Jonny’s head informing that their recording devices’ energy was useless in the room.

Jonny and the other researchers on his team all explained what they had been slaving away  for countless months in extremely technical terms. Pat understood about 75% about what they were speaking about. One doesn’t room with a scientist for six years and not pick up a rather impressive vocabulary.

Essentially what Jonny had done was simplify and enhance the cloning of the recently deceased. From a single strand of hair, they could produce an almost exact replica of the diseased and that these clones could potentially pick up the lives of their originator and carry on. One of the other researchers, Pat thinks his name is Andrew, said that it was an emotional revelation. “Theoretically, it could eliminate grief  and the process of grieving.”

Jonny put a hand on Andrew’s shoulder.  “But we’re not quite there yet. Forgive me if I come across as pompous when I say that what we’ve done is nothing short of innovating, I must stress the fact that we are still incredibly far from this being an option for the general public. The main side affect we’ve been working through we’ve been fondly referring to as the ‘Antonym Affect’.

“What’s been happening with these clones is that there’s always a distinct…difference. A complete 180o  change in part of their personality or physique. It usually targets more positive traits or attributes. One of the goats cloned ended up with incredibly spiked horns and a terribly agressive disposition.”

The other scientists sitting in on the conference  groaned at the news of the setback, but the press portion of the conference came and went without a hitch. The reporters had taken to calling the project “The Gap Filler”, much to Jonny’s distaste. That was such a stupid name. It wasn’t like he had an alternative, but if he had time to think it would have definitely been better.

Pat stood in the back, playing a game on his phone. Even after 100 years, Angry Birds was still just as much a trend as it was when it came out. He was so immersed in trying to hit the pigs that he jumped when Jonny placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Ready to go?”

Pat nodded, already tasting the steak tips that had been marinating on the counter all day.

\+ + + + +

“I think we need to put The Gap Filler on the back burner,” Jonny said conversationally one morning while they’re sitting at the breakfast counter. Pat jerked upright because he must’ve heard wrong. That was one of Jonny’s pride and joys, along with the robot puppy he’d made Patrick when they were 10 for his birthday. Thinking on it now, Pat probably still had that puppy somewhere in their room.

“I don’t see why,” Pat started around a mouthful of egg whites, but stopped at Jonny’s vaguely distgusted look. He tried again after he swallowed. “I don’t see why you’d stop. Aren’t you guys so close to debugging it?”

Of course, Pat was secretly thrilled. Maybe he could have Jonny back from the lab at a reasonable hour. There was also something entirely too creepy about The Gap Filler project to him as well. The whole idea of a replacement freaked him out. There was just something so ethically _wrong_ about having clones mill around like they were the original. It’s how the Circle of Life worked, like that animated lion movie from forever ago.  

He wondered if he could find the copy he had as a kid and show it to Jonny. He never got any of the old references that Patrick tried to make.

“The Antonym Affect…it just won’t…I don’t know. The bug is too big for us, but we don’t want to sell the technology because it could be _so_ easily misused.  It’s a…a-”

Patrick cut in, trying to be helpful. “A Catch-22?”

Jonny raised his eyebrows at him quizzically. Pat rolled his eyes, “And you call yourself educated. Seriously though, just put it on the shelf. There’s no harm in hoarding it.”

He smiled at Pat from over his coffee mug. “I suppose you’re right. Are we going out to eat tonight or do you want to stay in?

\+ + + + +

“A brain tumor? It just burst?” Jonny asked incredulously. Pat went into surgery for his _wrist_ , and now Jonny is supposed to, what, walk out of the hospital alone? A few numbers written on a piece of paper to help pick out a semi-decent pod to send Pat into orbit with?

The doctor tried to say a few placating words to Jonny, but he wouldn’t have it. He kept alternating from the uncomfortable chair to pacing the quaint surgeon’s office. “I really thought we were further along in the medical field by now. Aren’t these things almost entirely detectable and preventable?! NO, THEY’RE NOT BECAUSE--” he broke off as his voice cracked. He stormed out of the office and into the parking lot where his hover was waiting.

It was the worst kind of pain, to lose the one closest to you. Jonny’s hands couldn’t stop moving. They were covering his eyes, then his ears, then clutching at the back of his neck as if he could just find the source, the leak of the pain, then he could stop the flow of the hurt. Who knows how long he stayed in his hover, but when he resurfaced from inside his own mind, he looked at the situation from a new perspective. He could fix this.

\+ + + + +

It took a few weeks for Jonny to work up the nerve, or lose enough sanity, to actually head into the recesses of his lab to find The Gap Filler.

The small machine had a thin layer of dust from where it had been sitting on the shelf, untouched for years. He hastily brushed it off and brought it to the center of his lab where the strongest power sources were, muttering as he went. “Please work, oh my God, this has gotta work, Pat don’t you worry.” He pulled the scarf that Pat had worn out there one night and promptly left on one of the unused chairs scattered around.

He put the scarf to his nose and breathed in deep. If he closed his eyes he could clearly imagine Pat in there with him. He probably would’ve been taunting him good-naturedly about how crazy he thought Jonny looked.

To be fair, Jonny did look a bit crazy because by this point he pretty much was. The last grasps of logic were flying out the window as he powered the machine up. He knew the risks, and he even knew that with lack of use the machine most likely would make the antonym trait that much more drastic. Again, it had been years since the plans were even thought about by anyone on the research team involved. They’d let its hype die down and fade into the background before talk disappeared all together.

He just didn’t acknowledge that.

Within twenty minutes essentially a carbon copy of Pat’s back was turned towards him. The smile on Jonny’s face was as bright and dopey as it was when Pat had left everything in Buffalo to move in with him in Winnipeg.

That smile vanished when Clone-Pat turned around to face him. There was no way Jonny could ever mistake the ghoul in front of him for his Patrick. There wasn’t a chance that it could fill the Patrick- shaped hole in his life.

The skin around the clone’s eyes was an ugly, bruising color of purple and his earlobes hung just low enough to make Jonny uncomfortable looking at them. His eyebrows, instead of the usual unruly bushiness, were now sleek and refined. His teeth looked to be in various stages of decay. The only thing that was the same really was his terrible taste in clothing. The tropical Hawaiian shirt couldn’t escape either of them, even in death. Jonny wondered hysterically if Pat had programmed this as a joke when the project was still up and running.

“Jonny, let’s stay in tonight.”

Its voice sent shivers down Jonny’s spine. It almost sounded like Patrick’s own voice, but it sounded like it had through a video distorter. The voice had all sorts of natural feedback and overlays. It was one of the scariest sounds Jonny had ever heard.

He edged towards his desk where he kept a pen-ray in the top drawer in case any of his experiments ever went terribly wrong. There really was no better time to use it. The clone seemed to catch on though, turning its head to an uncomfortable angle. It just watched him.

Jonny got a firm grasp on the pen, and while he tried to get the cap off (he always kept the cap on because, duh, safety first), the clone made its move. It lunged at him faster than Kaner ever really liked moving, but he got the cap off at just the right moment. The pen’s contents shot forward and onto the clone’s face.

The skin started to melt, but it was the antonyms that burned off first, leaving a chemically burning, normal looking Patrick in its wake. In the back of his mind, he knew this wasn’t his Pat, but it hurt to see all the same. Jonny started to cry. He was sobbing almost uncontrollably by the time the clone had been reduced to a small puddle on the ground.

The tears kept going until he picked himself up, walked out of the lab and locked it permanently. He didn’t look back as he started up the walk to what was now a house too big for just him to inhabit.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, yes. Pat does die. If you wanted to, I guess you could count it that he dies twice. Jonny even has to kill him. 
> 
> So sorry that it happened like that.
> 
> Also, so sorry if this is a train wreck and a half.


End file.
